Teacher Support Materials

Teacher

Instructional Guide

This teacher resource includes lesson objectives, instructional strategies, and a guided outline for the successful facilitation of Research Quest in the classroom.

Student

Research Assistant Notebook

This notebook uses structured documentation as a strategy to support students as they work through their investigation. It includes guiding questions, organizers and prompts to help them record and evaluate their evidence, track their thinking, and use all of this to develop an evidence-based response to their research question: "How is energy transfer and matter cycling affected in a changing ecosystem?". This process helps make student critical thinking visible  which helps you and your students reflect on their learning and where they can use additional support and practice.

Assessment

Student Learning Assessment Tool

This document is designed to assist teachers as they monitor and record evidence of critical thinking skills in students. It includes a rubric with definitions and examples of target behaviors as well as a chart to document critical thinking skills in individual students.

Assessment

Student Rubric for Assessing Learning Outcomes

This is a tool that students can use to self-assess their competency at behaviors targeted in Research Quest investigations— gathering data, making inferences, building a hypothesis, and verbal communication.

Assessment

Student Rubric for Presenting Arguments

This rubric is designed to guide students as they prepare to present their hypotheses to the class. The document also includes a chart for students to evaluate the presentations of their peers.